We made it! Finally! We had a smooth ride right through WI, IL, and IN. Then around midnight (MI time), in the Benton Harbor area, we came across ice. I was just telling my dad that things had been going great. Gerrit took a long nap, we had dinner in Madison – talk about snow! We have never seen that much snow at one time. We couldn’t even see the cars waiting to turn b/c they were hidden by snow! Chicago was fine, other than a little construction. Who does constriction in Dec in the Midwest? Anyways, I shouldn’t have said things were great and no weather issues because we jinxed ourselves. We noticed the road looked wet but it was sheer ice. Adam was mad because MI doesn’t pre-treat their roads; guess our tax dollars in MN get put to good use. We started slipping a bit and in a matter of 2 miles saw 2 cars in the ditch so we decided to check the weather report. We pulled into a parking lot near a Panera because we knew we could get their Internet connection – got to love technology. So at midnight we were sitting in an empty parking lot looking up the weather and road conditions. The radar looked fine and the road conditions were vague. We decided to get a hotel and not chance it. I called my dad so he wouldn’t worry and we hunted down a respectable hotel. I just wanted a bed at that point but Adam had standards. Plus, we were in Benton Harbor – not known to be the safest place in MI either. We found the lights on at the Red Roof Inn so we pulled in.
Gerrit thought the big bed was cool and he slept between us seeing we didn’t have his pack and play with us. Even though we had this huge bed, Gerrit insisted on laying on me! Adam tried to snuggle with us but Gerrit pushed him off. Adam said to Gerrit: “I’ve known her longer than you!” and rolled over! I had to laugh which caused Gerrit to wake up. As we drove around to find our room, Adam said the lady gave us a ‘cut’ on our room rate. I was thinking 20 bucks or something significant but later in bed found out it was the business rate – 5 bucks off! Another comment that sent my chest a bouncing which prolonged Gerrit’s sleep! Finally I told Adam to stop talking or Gerrit would never get to sleep.
We woke up around 6 our time and Adam looked out the window to see an inch of snow! Uggg. We couldn’t win! We were told the snow wasn’t coming till 10 am! Little did the radio people know…so we threw our clothes on and headed out. We decided to forgo the free breakfast at Sophie’s across the street and deal with breakfast when we were out of the snow. I called my dad and he said it wasn’t snowing by them yet so we figured we just had to get going and we’d drive out of it. Nope. It snowed all the way and is still snowing. We decided that snow covered roads were better than ice covered and didn’t have trouble at all.
Gerrit had to drink the rest of his milk from yesterday which I left in the car on purpose seeing it would act as a refrigerator. The only other foods I had handy were Cheerios and gold fish crackers! What a breakfast. He did get fresh milk, a banana, and waffle when we got to Grandma’s. We knew she’d take care of us!
We have unloaded the car, had breakfast, showered, and all put clean clothes on. We are hoping to get a nap in (all of us) before heading over to my brother’s house to see his family. Never a dull moment traveling in the winter in the Midwest!
Ella and Gerrit posing for a nice Christmas photo:
Ella and Gerrit posing for a nice Christmas photo:
Gerrit and Opah playing with is new blocks. Gerrit had more fun dumping out the container and putting the blocks back in. By the end of our visit he was getting pretty good at stacking the blocks and making towers:
Gerrit and Mia each got a Curious George - Mia did a better job loving him, Gerrit thought it was another item he could throw (in time....):
My brother's family is trying to make a hockey player out of Gerrit (his whole family plays hockey - even Mia who's not quite 3 - well, she is learning how to skate.). They gave Gerrit a cute little hockey set that will work great in our living room and a hockey shirt. They can try, but hockey is during basketball...I would prefer to sit in a warm gym instead of a cold ice rink (I did plenty of that this vacation):
The family at the Griffins game - the minor league for the Red Wings - it was dollar hot dog and beer night...guess what we all had for dinner?
Sunday we hung out with the cousins again. We wanted Gerrit to get as much time with his cousins as possible. Mia wanted to sit next to Gerrit during dinner. Here they are waiting for the pizza:
Can you tell who ate more? Cousin Max even said Gerrit can be a pig at times based on the amount of food he eats compared to him and his sisters.
